48 Hours a Day

Chapter 696 - Fear

Chapter 696: Fear

Those things did not expect that their ally would suddenly turn to them. When Zhang Heng opened fire, they were caught off guard. What surprised them the most had to be the toy mini submachine gun that mysteriously came to life.

Considering stringent gun control laws, an ordinary person would be hard-pressed to get his hands on such a powerful weapon. Not to mention Zhang Heng was only a high school student. It was difficult to connect his accurate marksmanship to his age.

The security team outside workshop No. 3 was utterly stupefied by Zhang Heng’s first attack wave. If they were ordinary humans, they would have been killed on the spot. The human body was like a shell of sorts to these aliens, and they wouldn’t die as long as their brains or spines didn’t get hit.

In fact, one of the ten aliens who charged at Zhang Heng got lucky, getting shot only in the chest and leg. Although his gun was only twenty centimeters away from the enemy’s head, Zhang Heng decided to stop shooting. He would never miss his target at such close range, but after seeing that there were still so many of them to be dealt with, he decided to reserve ammunition.

After all, the micro submachine gun in his hand was made of Lego bricks, and there was only one magazine left. Thus, he blocked the enemy’s hand with the submachine gun, and before the alien could launch another attack, Zhang Heng grabbed his knife with the other hand and stabbed it into its temple.

With a grunt, Zhang Heng pulled out the knife, now entirely coated in blood, and watched his enemy collapse in front of him. Unfortunately, he received no notifications from the system. Suddenly, a guard came out of nowhere and crawled to Zhang Heng to grab his leg. His cheek had been pierced by a bullet earlier, but it seemed like it did not affect him too much.

So, Zhang Heng fired another shot at him.

Not long after he took down the group of security guards, a couple of factory workers ran to him the moment he walked out of the workshop. Whether men, women, or children, all ran mindlessly to Zhang Heng as if unafraid of their impending death.

Zhang Heng did not expect that he would get to enjoy killing zombies in a quest. These things could endure pain very well, and other than the head and spine, they had no other weaknesses. Simply said, they could keep attacking even after they had taken multiple shots, the reason why Zhang Heng thought these creatures were like zombies. They were actually more like the zombies from “Zombie World War” instead of the “The Walking Dead” series. Hence, after emptying half a magazine at them, he only managed to slow a few down. By the time he realized it, the bogeys on his right side had almost gotten to him.

Unlike other shooters, close-quarters combat happened to be one of Zhang Heng’s specialties. After the previous battles, he had found a quick and lethal way to deal with them. All he needed to do was to break their necks and render them paralyzed. The method had a shortcoming, though, and that was the alien in the fourth ventricle would still be alive.

With the skull’s protection, it would be easy for Zhang Heng to kill them right now. His most pressing goal at this stage was to escape this place. Not wanting to deal with hundreds of enemies simultaneously in the glass factory, Zhang Heng decided to retreat and paralyze them first.

At such times, the wrench would be better than the knife.

It took Zhang Heng less than three seconds to break the necks of two people. That, however, bought him no time, as the other enemies behind him were almost onto him. In the end, Zhang Heng was forced to open fire, in which the system sent him a couple of notifications as he gunned them down.

Taking advantage of the small window of time, he climbed to the roof of workshop No. 3. It was at that time that he could see how good they were at reanimating their human shells. Those that came out of the cicada pupae earlier were better at piloting the bodies. These ones followed Zhang Heng up to workshop No. 3’s roof. There were also some with worse motor coordination, seeing how they had to climb slowly, and there were some who just couldn’t come up.

After Zhang Heng got on the roof, he did not run immediately. Instead, he waited a while and kicked the first three zombies that appeared off the ledge. He then took a look at the factory and found out that there were enemies in almost every direction.

Clearly, the trouble he had caused in workshop No.3 had angered those things.

If they knew what he did underground, they would probably be even more furious.

Unexpectedly, all the aliens abruptly stopped moving, frozen solid as if the power was cut off from them. Zhang Heng thought that he had come to a huge wax museum. At the same time, he received another system notification.

Even in such a critical moment, Zhang Heng could not ignore the notification.

[Congratulations on completing the hidden mission. Successfully finding and destroying the “Pupae Tree,” cutting off the aliens’ means of reproduction. Proxy war score: +100. Visit the character panel to view related information...]

Zhang Heng figured that the Pupae Tree mentioned must have been the thing under workshop No. 3. Related to the reproduction and survival of the alien, the Pupae Tree’s great significance to them was self-evident. Zhang Heng was not surprised that he was rewarded with 100 points. In many sci-fi movies and games, all the other bugs would die after the brood had been killed.

However, Zhang Heng was wrong. This was not a movie, after all. All the aliens around him somehow knew that the Pupae Tree was destroyed. Seemingly realizing that their tree had been destroyed, the horde instantly broke out into a frenzied state when they awoke from their slumber.

They raised their heads in unison and glared at Zhang Heng on the roof.

Although no one said a word, Zhang Heng could feel that that they were probably not too happy now.

In fact, right at the next moment, the aliens started to climb the roof in an even more furious manner. Some even set up a fire-fighting ladder to climb the roof. At least hundreds of them surrounding workshop No. 3, all having a single goal in mind—kill the man that destroyed the Pupae Tree.

Zhang Heng finally understood what it meant by poking a hornet’s nest. It now seemed he would have to be on a constant run and fight for his life for the remainder of the quest. Who knew how many had infiltrated society? Even if the Pupae Tree was destroyed, those still breathing were enough to hunt him down.

This problem, however, was something to be dealt with in the future. For now, Zhang Heng had to figure out a way to leave the glass factory to join Bai Qing to save the imprisoned citizens. Seeing more and more aliens climbing up the roof, he did not intend to stay any longer. He smashed the head of the alien who charged at him, then ran towards the wall as he emptied his clip. This wasn’t the time for reserving ammunition.

The remaining bullets managed to create an exit.

Unfortunately, the enemies were one step ahead, blocking the exit before Zhang Heng could get to it. At the same time, more and more enemies were closing in from three other directions.

Seeing that he was about to be surrounded, a strange idea suddenly appeared in Zhang Heng’s mind. Even he himself did not know why he would make such a move. He stopped running, stretched out one of his hands to face the enemy in front, and closed his eyes.

The world seemed to come to a pause. After that, the horde of charging enemies suddenly stopped and fell to the ground like broken puppets. This strange domino effect happened to the enemies who were still climbing the ladders as well—their faces filled with indescribable fear.

As for Zhang Heng, he seemed to have experienced a nightmare. When he opened his eyes again, he was drenched in sweat. His body and mind were exhausted, but he knew that it was not the time to rest. He mustered the last ounce of strength he had and jumped towards the wall.